Re:Monitoring a high risk conjunction between two large defu...
by nabla9 on Wednesday October 14, 2020 @03:19AM
(#24774033)
It depends on LEO altitude (exponentially) and aerodynamic properties of the object.
~ 150 km making single orbit becomes impossible.
~ 300 km orbital decay is ~km/month, so it already takes years to fall down to earth. ISS is at 400 km and decays 2 km/month. It has unfavourable mass to area ratio due to all those solar panels.
~ 500 km it takes few decades to fall down. (Hubble space telescope is here)
990 km is the altitude where these two satellites might collide. Debris can stay up thousands of years .
~ 150 km making single orbit becomes impossible.
~ 300 km orbital decay is ~km/month, so it already takes years to fall down to earth. ISS is at 400 km and decays 2 km/month. It has unfavourable mass to area ratio due to all those solar panels.
~ 500 km it takes few decades to fall down. (Hubble space telescope is here)
990 km is the altitude where these two satellites might collide. Debris can stay up thousands of years .